Ashleigh Barty has more wicked variety in her game than a box of assorted chocolates. The Aussie brought it all to the table at the Rod Laver Arena on Sunday night, the crowd gorged on the fare. And as intended it caught the young American Amanda Anisimova short.
The world No. 1 came through the high-intensity Australian Open fourth-round clash 6-4, 6-3 in 74 minutes. Barty will play American Jessica Pegula in the last-eight stage.
Anisimova, 20, one of the in-form players in the championship, who knocked out the defending champion Naomi Osaka in the third round, took it to Barty, but she didn’t have the consistency to back the force that is her play. That might ha e had something to do with Barty’s range of shots and her ability to mix it up, forcing opponents to think.
The two-time major winner typically comes into matches looking to make her opponent as uncomfortable as possible.
Anisimova, who has battled personal tragedy these last three years, having lost her father, who was her coach, to a heart-attack in 2019, repeatedly pointed to her head during the match. Reminding herself to think perhaps.
“I felt like tonight was different to the other couple of matchups I had,” said Barty. “There were new challenges and overall I did a pretty good job of being able to control my own service games and put a lot of pressure on her service games, which in the end just kept building pressure.”
Pegula, who knocked out the fifth-seeded Greek Maria Sakkari to set up the lasteight clash, lost to Barty in straight sets at the French Open three years ago. It was their only meeting.
“Jess is a great competitor, she can compete point in, point out, irrespective of the score,” Barty said, analyzing her next opponent. “She is able to control the baseline. She’s able to take time away from you particularly off her backhand. She loves these courts, she made the quarters here last year.”
